A Night in the ER

A lot has happened in my life since my last blog. Most of it great. We've had some wonderfully fun adventures as a family--a 60 mile bike ride weekend with Wandering Wheels, a beach vacation with the Smith/Wenger families, time with family and friends as we soak up the last of our summer break. But I haven't made time to blog about any of that. Now I would like to share a little glimpse into our lives throught a rather crazy incident.
On Saturday night I gave Noah a hair cut (which he screamed and complained through--apparently he didn't like being squirted with water). Afterwards he and Moses took a bath. After their baths they were running around naked having fun together while I got Hannah and Josiah started on their bedtime routines. My parents were visiting and Mom was upstairs helping me out. Suddenly Noah was crying, which is not unusual. I didn't react right away (this is actually a gift of mine--not to panic at every cry). But Moses said, "Noah needs help." He had decided he wanted to crawl into the pack n' play we keep set up in our room for my nephew Judah. In the process of crawling/falling into it he had hurt himself. He was holding his crotch so at first I assumed he had wracked himself. But after pulling him out I realized there was blood coming from his penis! After Danny looked at it we decided we should take him to the emergency room. Luckily my parents were there to stay with the older kids so off Danny and I went to the ER.
It was interesting trying to explain all 40 times what and how Noah was hurt. But the little boy who had howled through his haircut remained calm and happy, even laughing and trying to get up and run around. I think his parents were more concerned and nervous than he was! It became obvious that no major damage had been done when he asked to go pee and did so effortlessly (into a fun little plastic urinal). But it was also obvious that he needed stitches. The nurse practioner said that it was only a surface cut and so she felt confident to do it herself. Otherwise it would have required a trip to Riley to see a specialist.
As she prepared to stitch him up she prepared us for the worst. "He'll scream bloody murder and even after he's numbed he'll scream just out of fear." But Noah surprised us all by crying only during the numbing and then becoming calm throughout the rest of the 7 stitches. He was phenomenal.
The nurses loved him! And one of them decorated a clean (unused) plastic urinal with stickers and filled it with stickers and suckers for him. He loved it! He shook it all the way home saying, "I hab a toy! I show Grandma my toy!"
And as we drove home at 11:00 pm, my little boy who had just had his little penis stitched back together sat in the back seat singing, "We worship you. Who you are!" I was in awe. He was teaching me that no matter my circumstances, no matter what pain life brings me, I can still sing Him praises! I worshiped with a new sense of joy the next morning as we took our unphased little boy to church. And I pray that my Noah, who has already gone through a lot in his little life, will always sing praises to Yahweh!
To the One who can do much more than all we ask or imagine, praise and glory and honor!